Lisa Barcellos Study on Wildfire Smoke’s Impact on DNA Receives $1.46 Million Grant

UC Berkeley’s Professor Lisa Barcellos received $1.46 million from the VoLo Foundation to study the effects of wildfire smoke on the DNA of residents in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Collaborating with researchers from Sonoma Technology, the National Human Genome Research Institute, and Stanford University, Barcellos will analyze samples from 5,000 East Bay adults collected during the major wildfire years of 2020 and 2021. The study aims to identify epigenetic changes, which are DNA modifications influenced by environmental factors like wildfire smoke. These changes can affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence. Understanding how wildfire smoke impacts the epigenome could provide predictive insights into disease risks and highlight the molecular health effects of increased wildfire exposure.